How to help an auditory learner - hints please!

[weblette]

At dd's yr4 parent consultation last night we were told that she is a very auditory learner.

She gets very high test scores and is bright but appears to be daydreaming a lot of the time and has real difficulty organising her thoughts to get them down in writing - she never produces enough work.

They're doing work with her at school to try to support her but is there anything anyone can suggest that we could do at home to help?

TIA!

Hi! Auditory learners often look like they're day dreaming because they don't need to look at the person who's speaking to listen, doesn't mean that they are.

Mind mapping? It's usually used for visual learners but is a good way to help children organise their thoughts. It's a bit like a brainstorm but more organised- with bigger branches for the main points and smaller branches for detail.

Having said that, auditory learners tend to prefer lists so you could get her to identify her main points then note detail below. Does she get a chance to plan her work in school? If you can train her to do it fast, it may speed up her work overall.

Also, if she is very auditory it may help her to talk her ideas into her hands first, a bit of a stream of consciousness IYSWIM. May seem a bit odd but apparently it works!

What does your dd say about it? does she say why she doesn't get much down on paper? Are you sure she's being given enough time?
HTH

Thanks pinkmunkee! She says she can't order what's in her head so the idea of writing lists sounds good.

Time-wise her teacher says she gets the same as everyone else and it's a very mixed ability class so I'm not sure that's the problem - she just can't focus enough. We're going to start making her more aware of the time it takes to do things - I've bought one of those time tracker things today to see if it'll help.

We're just really grateful the school picked this up and is willing to help her work around it!

Ah, bless her. Hope it all works out.

I was just like your dd at primary. I find talking through my ideas is really helpful to get thoughts in order, I often talk to myself Planning work was a revelation to me as well, only discovered that at A level. I was diagnosed as borderline dyslexic, never had any targetted support and don't feel it held my back, but did need to develop strategies to get things on paper, i could daydream all day me!

Here's some stuff on mind mapping. There is a lot more if you search Tony Buzan mind mapping.

It's become quite commercialised with lots of training courses and software now.

Colleagues used to use it a lot with children with specific language disorder to help them organise their ideas.

Hope it helps.